“The LORD bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”
Ruth 2:20

A key element of the book of Ruth is the concept of the “kinsman-redeemer.” The kinsman-redeemer was a close male relative who, according to Jewish laws, had the privilege/responsibility to help a relative who was in trouble or need. To maintain family property rights, the kinsman-redeemer had the right to purchase property a relative in need might have sold due to poverty, thus keeping the property “in the family.”

In the book of Ruth, a family sold property due to poverty. Ruth was a Moabite who married into that family in which all the male heirs had died. Boaz was a close male relative of the family. He had the right to buy the property to restore it to the family. In this case buying the property also meant marrying Ruth. Honorably, Boaz did both.

As it turned out, Boaz and Ruth were great-grandparents of King David, from whose line Jesus the Messiah would come.

Boaz as a kinsman-redeemer was a prophetic type of Christ. How? By his sin, Adam sold the human race and the planet into bondage. To restore the land, but more importantly the people, a kinsman–redeemer was needed. Jesus is the ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer. Only God who is sinless is able (worthy) to buy it all back. But the kinsman-redeemer had to be a relative (human), so Jesus, who is God, became a human being to be our Relative.

By His death and resurrection, Jesus paid the price to redeem “His people” and the planet.

As Boaz was the wealthy and loving relative who was willing to buy the field and marry Ruth, Jesus is the wealthy and loving relative who has redeemed the Bride (the Church) and the field (the planet).

Footnote: Ruth was a Moabites—a most undesirable, but that didn’t stop Boaz. We are undesirable sinners, but that didn’t stop Jesus! Hallelujah!